Wheel of Challenges

[+ClutterC]

I have been told by HQ that a CITO Event nor a Mega Event will be considered for an "Event Cache"  for this month's Challenge. Did anyone notice on the Challenge page that those 2 events would not help to qualify for a souvenir? CITOs are listed on the Events drop down on the Geocaching website. I don't get it.

[Keystone]

@ClutterC - only regular events count towards the souvenir challenge for this month.  There was a discussion of this earlier in the thread.

[+Max and 99]

1 hour ago, ClutterC said:

I have been told by HQ that a CITO Event nor a Mega Event will be considered for an "Event Cache"  for this month's Challenge. Did anyone notice on the Challenge page that those 2 events would not help to qualify for a souvenir? CITOs are listed on the Events drop down on the Geocaching website. I don't get it.

I'll see if I can find the post that explains it, but I believe at first HQ said they do count but then apologized and indicated they don't.

Edit: it's on page 8 of this thread, August 15.

Edited August 25, 2023 by Max and 99

[geoawareUSA9]

Just now, B'n'C @Fernie.BC said:

Is a cito considered an event cache for the August Wheel of challenges souvenir?

It's not.

 

I'm merging this in with the existing Wheel of CHallenges thread.

[+Clongo_Rongo]

What comes next in Wheel of Challenges?

Tune in again on August 29 to find out what the final challenge will be ?? -

hopefully it will be find 20 of each type of Icons ???

[+barefootjeff]

12 minutes ago, Clongo_Rongo said:

hopefully it will be find 20 of each type of Icons ???

 

Seriously? In my whole region (equivalent of county), there are 4 virtuals, 3 LBHs, 10 EarthCaches and 12 Adventure Labs (4 of those mine). Do you work for an oil company?

[+Clongo_Rongo]

challenge - It's going to be a difficult job but I'm sure you can rise to the challenge.

The situation of being faced with something that needs great mental or physical effort in order to be done successfully and therefore tests a person's ability

 

[+barefootjeff]

1 hour ago, Clongo_Rongo said:

challenge - It's going to be a difficult job but I'm sure you can rise to the challenge.

The situation of being faced with something that needs great mental or physical effort in order to be done successfully and therefore tests a person's ability

 

 

What I really liked about this month's challenge was that it was about caching experiences rather than just numbers-chasing. Although we only needed one of each type, some of those were pretty challenging, like the T5 water-access EarthCache I did, the 4.5/4 traditional along the same waterway, the D4.5 mystery (okay, I needed a bit of a hint with that one) and the 4/4.5 multi that required using a ladder in a potentially high muggle area. Even the others, while not so challenging, were still fun day trips, like the AL on Sydney's northern beaches that was a ferry trip across the bay then a bus down to a pretty spectacular bit of coastline, the virtual set in an historical central Sydney building, the LBH relating to another piece of Sydney's history and lee737's event in Newcastle (100km north) that was an enjoyable gathering of the region's caching community. It even prompted me to hide an LBH locally as this region only had two of those, which has been well received by the community with 5 FPs from 5 finds. While this region doesn't have many caches, what it does have are generally interesting, enjoyable and often challenging experiences.

 

Why do all the promotions have to be about promoting power trails?

 

 

[+Max and 99]

Final Wheel of Challenges (Blog post)

 

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work! For this challenge, we’re celebrating the community connections and teamwork that make geocaching so special. This is a leaderboard challenge where you will earn points for finding and logging geocaches. From September 4–October 1, we’re highlighting the teamwork and community building of Event Caches by offering extra points for finding and logging Event Caches and CITO Events. To shine a light on the community spirit of all the cache hiders who create geocaches for the community, we’re also offering extra points for finding highly-Favorited caches and receiving Favorite points on owned caches.

Here are the leaderboard point values for this challenge:

Attended an Event	75
Attended a CITO Event	75
Found a cache with 10+ Favorite points	50
Received a Favorite point on an owned cache	50
Found it*	25

*Log a Found it on any other cache type

Earn the easy souvenir for this challenge by earning 100 points on your leaderboard from September 4–October 1.

Earn the hard souvenir for this challenge by earning 1000 points on your leaderboard from September 4–October 1.

Don’t forget to share your #WheelofChallenges geocache outings on social media!

[+CaracalShan]

And the announcement video says 2 souvenirs for 1000 and 2000 points, so that's confusing... Do Mega -events count as events this time? Sounds like a very easy challenge to finish with.

[+Fjortisfylla]

37 minutes ago, CaracalShan said:

And the announcement video says 2 souvenirs for 1000 and 2000 points, so that's confusing... Do Mega -events count as events this time? Sounds like a very easy challenge to finish with.

 

Yeah getting for example 4 LAB steps to finish the Easy level seems a bit undertuned for a month-long Challenge.

1000 for easy and 2000 for hard seems a bit more like it

[+GeoElmo6000]

1 hour ago, Max and 99 said:

*Log a Found it on any other cache type

 

So lab caches don't count?

[+thebruce0]

The wording seems to imply that ALs aren't included in this challenge. I shall withhold my obvious opinion ;P

It's more points for an event which is good. But maybe they could have added finding Teamwork attribute caches. Sure it could entice people to add the attribute unnecessarily, but that kind of "cheat" can happen with any challenge really. *shrug*

I think, if this isn't truly 100% random, they chose this is a more simplistic accessible challenge for everyone, given the relative flack they've received over the last couple of months. This one uses the leaderboard as well, which I think some people have been assuming would be the case throughout.  I'm neither here nor there with this one. It'll be another easy Hard, I think. Not for everyone, but here, yeah.

[+thebruce0]

-

Edited August 31, 2023 by thebruce0
removed as prior comment has been deleted/hidden

[+barefootjeff]

5 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

I think, if this isn't truly 100% random, they chose this is a more simplistic accessible challenge for everyone, given the relative flack they've received over the last couple of months. This one uses the leaderboard as well, which I think some people have been assuming would be the case throughout.  I'm neither here nor there with this one. It'll be another easy Hard, I think. Not for everyone, but here, yeah.

 

It's pretty much just a rehash of the May Favourite Fan challenge with events thrown in as well. Most of the caches around here with 10+ FPs are older ones since newer caches struggle to even get 10 finders in the first year or two, so it's again one for people living in cache-dense regions. If I manage to reach the hard level, it'll most likely be more from people giving FPs to my caches rather than me finding enough without breaking the bank on travel costs.

[+lee737]

Yes - not much imagination here.... despite all the options they have at their disposal, they've gone pretty hum-drum for the finale.

This one will probably just be passively obtained for us....

[+Team Canary]

34 minutes ago, lee737 said:

Yes - not much imagination here.... despite all the options they have at their disposal, they've gone pretty hum-drum for the finale.

This one will probably just be passively obtained for us....

 

Yep, 40 caches in four weeks is not hard at all. Boring!!!

[+barefootjeff]

26 minutes ago, Team Canary said:

 

Yep, 40 caches in four weeks is not hard at all. Boring!!!

 

It'd be more than my best month ever, which is 38 finds in June 2020 (just after we came out of the first COVID lockdown). I'll sit this one out unless I find myself close to the target points in the last week.

[+thebruce0]

Okay remember they're working with average worldwide stats, which they know and we don't. If they pick a hard that is actually hard for the 1%, it would be extremely inaccessible. Any challenge they pick will lead to the top tier shouting "boring!" - live with it; we need to live with it. It's a worldwide hobby, and the vaaaaaast majority are nowhere near the level of activity we may profess. We are guaranteed to get "boring" challenges when they are presented to and intended to be accessible to the worldwide community.

 

That's why we have Challenge Caches. And even then, here, Ontario is getting a 'cream of the crop' effect with new challenge cache revisions periodically published that are catering to the handful of the same top crop cachers who are always traveling and caching daily with insane statistics, creating these CCs that are many multiple years away from even the average cacher in Ontario - but 10 people in Ontario qualify so it's good go to.  Usually it's 10 from among the same 30ish cachers in the entire province (at least who legitimately find their caches rather than mass group caching 95% of the time).  Now imagine that effect for the world.

 

The other way to look at it is to instill your own challenge on top of the presented challenge - they propose a theme, and points rewarded for caches that aren't technically part of the theme (favs and any cache type finds?) - so MAKE it a challenge and score for yourself, only for the relevant finds. Ignore the souvenir scoring, don't reduce your caching habits to avoid points for non-relevant finds, and just score yourself, earn the souvenir the "pure" way, even if you technically earned it on day 1. Or only count caches that are thematically related. If Hard is too easy, then make it hard. Or just accept the souvenir because you're that good of a geocacher, relative to the worldwide community.

*shrug*

Edited August 31, 2023 by thebruce0

[LySt]

Dunno whether the text was changed afterwards but I now read "Log a Found it on any other cache type (excludes Adventure Lab® Locations)" for 25 points, but the minimum values are still at 100 and 1000. What's more binding: the blog post or a video (or what else)? (the numbers are the same in the YT short I just watched - where did you find 1000 and 2000?)

Edited August 31, 2023 by LySt

[+zeze1]

The video has been corrected in the meantime, but there are still some inconsistencies. Or will AdLabs only count in the German-speaking part of the world?

[+HHL]

On 8/30/2023 at 1:18 AM, Team Canary said:

Yep, 40 caches in four weeks is not hard at all. Boring!!!

See this post:

 

[+CCFwasG]

Sorry if this has been posted already but... I completed the current wheel yesterday and finished my logs today. But no souvenir! I'm absolutely sure I did everything in the right dates, so if anyone knows whether there there is a time lag or ??? Very sad. 

[+thebruce0]

As an anecdote, you can find social media posts from newbies who are excited to find say their 5th geocache, just the one, and at most 1 per day - most.  I drive home and could stop for 5 roadsides within 30 minutes with tiny detours to my regular route. There's no question that experienced geocachers will pick'em up at a rate new cachers will find (yes) impossible. They haven't got there yet, don't know how it could be done (let alone the debates about 'most caches in a day' hitting that 1000 threshold). So I do agree that it's unreasonable to expect that even the average cacher would find the Hard requirements (at least most of them) actually easy.

 

I've advocated in the past for a "harder" Hard, and I think that's been happening. But I definitely do not expect something like 40 finds in a week or less to be a standard for 'hard', as for most of the worldwide community that would be more like 'insane'.

 

ETA: Maybe there should be an 'insane' souvenir although that might hit some political correctness triggers

Edited August 31, 2023 by thebruce0

[+Max and 99]

1 hour ago, CCFwasG said:

Sorry if this has been posted already but... I completed the current wheel yesterday and finished my logs today. But no souvenir! I'm absolutely sure I did everything in the right dates, so if anyone knows whether there there is a time lag or ??? Very sad. 

On a glance of your finds I do not see an earth cache listed. No one can see your adventure lab finds so that's one you may want to double check on also.

[+barefootjeff]

7 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

As an anecdote, you can find social media posts from newbies who are excited to find say their 5th geocache, just the one, and at most 1 per day - most.  I drive home and could stop for 5 roadsides within 30 minutes with tiny detours to my regular route. There's no question that experienced geocachers will pick'em up at a rate new cachers will find (yes) impossible. They haven't got there yet, don't know how it could be done (let alone the debates about 'most caches in a day' hitting that 1000 threshold). So I do agree that it's unreasonable to expect that even the average cacher would find the Hard requirements (at least most of them) actually easy.

 

I still haven't got there yet, my find rate over ten years in the game has been pretty steady at about 0.4 caches per day. But even that's not sustainable as the new cache rate in my region is now less than 0.1 caches per day (32 in the last 12 months, with 9 of those mine). Almost all my finds now are outside my region so that means drives (or train trips) of an hour or more each way, sometimes just for one cache. No matter how much I might want to, I can't just go out and find more caches because there aren't more caches to go out and find.

 

Edit to add: New ALs are even scarcer here, there haven't been any on the NSW Central Coast in the last twelve months.

Edited September 1, 2023 by barefootjeff

[+predator1337]

@Hügh can you make a checker for the september challenge?

[+Hügh]

4 hours ago, predator1337 said:

@Hügh can you make a checker for the september challenge?

No, since it’s a Leaderboard based challenge. 

[+Clongo_Rongo]

 

On 9/1/2023 at 1:51 PM, Hügh said:

No, since it’s a Leaderboard based challenge. 

 

shame my Leaderboard stats are not for next week 

 

Edited September 3, 2023 by Clongo_Rongo

[+jlchips]

Is the hard Iconic souvenir still available today if I decide to grab some last-minute icons? The tab in the app already switched over so I just wanted to make sure.

[+Max and 99]

On 9/3/2023 at 1:29 PM, jlchips said:

Is the hard Iconic souvenir still available today if I decide to grab some last-minute icons? The tab in the app already switched over so I just wanted to make sure.

Should still count, as long as the dates match those in the promo.

It looks like they forgot to change the wording on the 25 points when they posted it to the app (the blog post was edited after posting). It's going to cause problems.

Edit: day 2, the app promo has been fixed. 

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Max and 99

[+Fjortisfylla]

30 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

Should still count, as long as the dates match those in the promo.

It looks like they forgot to change the wording on the 25 points when they posted it to the app. It's going to cause problems.

 

 

 

What part do you mean?
I cant see any real difference between your screenshot and the websites?

Edited September 3, 2023 by Fjortisfylla
added image twice

[+Max and 99]

The blog post was edited after it was posted to let us know that Adventure Labs would not be counted. 

 

[+Fjortisfylla]

Ah right, I see.
So the leaderboard will probably count LABs..hm, well I guess I will find out when the Souvenir pops up in the inventory.

[+geoBirder]

The leaderboard has been amended, so Adventure Lab points will not appear and confuse players. I completed an Adventure Lab location this morning and there’s no sign of it. That’s a nice update. It’ll make keeping track easier.

[+Max and 99]

I sure am getting a lot of Wheel souvenir reminders.

[+JPS1985]

Where are you seeing that Adventure Labs don't count towards the September Wheel of Challenges?
My leaderboard scoring is as follows:

 

But so far this challenge we've found 14 lab stages, 2 virtuals and attended an event.

 

JPS1985

 

 

[+Hügh]

10 minutes ago, JPS1985 said:

Where are you seeing that Adventure Labs don't count towards the September Wheel of Challenges?

 

The souvenir promotion page; the blog:

 

https://www.geocaching.com/play/souvenircampaign/wheelofchallenges

https://www.geocaching.com/blog/2023/08/ready-for-the-final-challenge/

 

Quote

Here are the leaderboard point values for this challenge:

• Attended an Event: 75
• Attended a CITO Event: 75
• Found a cache with 10+ Favorite points: 50
• Received a Favorite point on an owned cache: 50
• Found it*: 25
• *Log a Found it on any other cache type (excludes Adventure Lab® Locations).

[+Max and 99]

33 minutes ago, JPS1985 said:

Where are you seeing that Adventure Labs don't count towards the September Wheel of Challenges?
My leaderboard scoring is as follows:

 

But so far this challenge we've found 14 lab stages, 2 virtuals and attended an event.

 

JPS1985

 

 

On the blog and app it says adventure lab locations are not allowed this month. That was changed after the announcement. 

[+tyke]

The launch FAQ stated that AdLabs would be counted throughout the campaign. So why have the rules been changed before the campaign has ended?

[+BlacknWhite]

On 8/30/2023 at 12:53 AM, Max and 99 said:

Final Wheel of Challenges (Blog post)

 

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work! For this challenge, we’re celebrating the community connections and teamwork that make geocaching so special. This is a leaderboard challenge where you will earn points for finding and logging geocaches. From September 4–October 1, we’re highlighting the teamwork and community building of Event Caches by offering extra points for finding and logging Event Caches and CITO Events. To shine a light on the community spirit of all the cache hiders who create geocaches for the community, we’re also offering extra points for finding highly-Favorited caches and receiving Favorite points on owned caches.

Here are the leaderboard point values for this challenge:

Attended an Event	75
Attended a CITO Event	75
Found a cache with 10+ Favorite points	50
Received a Favorite point on an owned cache	50
Found it*	25

*Log a Found it on any other cache type

Earn the easy souvenir for this challenge by earning 100 points on your leaderboard from September 4–October 1.

Earn the hard souvenir for this challenge by earning 1000 points on your leaderboard from September 4–October 1.

Don’t forget to share your #WheelofChallenges geocache outings on social media!

Found a Geocache with 10+ favorite points (GC9JDRX The Happiest Geocache - 18 Favorites) on the 4th of September (Should be 50 points) but it's not listed on my Leaderboard points

[+barefootjeff]

7 minutes ago, BlacknWhite said:

Found a Geocache with 10+ favorite points (GC9JDRX The Happiest Geocache - 18 Favorites) on the 4th of September (Should be 50 points) but it's not listed on my Leaderboard points

 

What time did you log it? Being a leaderboard challenge, it didn't start until noon UTC which would have been 10pm on the 4th in New South Wales.

Edited September 10, 2023 by barefootjeff

[+Max and 99]

24 minutes ago, BlacknWhite said:

Found a Geocache with 10+ favorite points (GC9JDRX The Happiest Geocache - 18 Favorites) on the 4th of September (Should be 50 points) but it's not listed on my Leaderboard points

I think the easiest solution would be to delete your log and relog it as a find. I bet you get the 50 points immediately. 

[+tyke]

18 hours ago, Deepdiggingmole said:

and they did with earlier souvenirs - the fact they excluded them from this particular set of souvenirs does not mean they broke any promises.

I read the FAQ stating that AdLabs would be counted throughout the campaign as a promise.

[+barefootjeff]

5 minutes ago, tyke said:

I read the FAQ stating that AdLabs would be counted throughout the campaign as a promise.

 

They didn't say "throughout the campaign":

 

There were other cache types that didn't count for some of the challenges. Each challenge had different requirements.

[+fizzymagic]

18 hours ago, BlacknWhite said:

Found a Geocache with 10+ favorite points (GC9JDRX The Happiest Geocache - 18 Favorites) on the 4th of September (Should be 50 points) but it's not listed on my Leaderboard points

 

Time zone problem.  If you read the fine print it probably started on September 4 Pacific Time.  For some reason gc.com has all kinds of trouble with time zones.

Edited September 10, 2023 by fizzymagic

[+BlacknWhite]

Originally logged the find on afternoon on the 4th September and did not show on the Leaderboard the next day
I deleted the log the next day and relogged the find but it still did not show on the Leaderboard
I tried editing my log and edited the found date to the 5th October  but it still did not show on the Leaderboard
I gave up and changed the date back to the 4th October again
I give up

19 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

 

What time did you log it? Being a leaderboard challenge, it didn't start until noon UTC which would have been 10pm on the 4th in New South Wales.

 

19 hours ago, Max and 99 said:

I think the easiest solution would be to delete your log and relog it as a find. I bet you get the 50 points immediately. 

 

1 hour ago, fizzymagic said:

 

Time zone problem.  If you read the fine print it probably started on September 4 Pacific Time.  For some reason gc.com has all kinds of trouble with time zones.

 

[+Max and 99]

38 minutes ago, BlacknWhite said:

I tried editing my log and edited the found date to the 5th October  but it still did not show on the Leaderboard

Editing the log won't do anything for the leaderboard. You have to delete the previous log and log the Found It again..

[+BlacknWhite]

3 hours ago, Max and 99 said:

Editing the log won't do anything for the leaderboard. You have to delete the previous log and log the Found It again..

That worked for me today, thank you

[+Max and 99]

11 minutes ago, BlacknWhite said:

That worked for me today, thank you

So glad!